spilog

So last weekend after Buffalo got burried under two feet of snow, I decided not to bail out on my planned trip out there and went along for a fun weekend anyway. It was fun first storm of the winter, a good amount of snow, trees down, no power to a large swath of the area.

This was my first trip with my new Canon EF 50mm f/1.4. So far I really like it. It allows me to take some interesting shots which I otherwise would have no prayer of getting.

Utility trucks camped out in our hotel ...

Wow what an amazing rant, back in September Steve Yegge posted an absolutely amazing rant on programming in the browser swamp.

Here are some choice quotes. But just go read the whole post yourself, it is worth it, that is if you are into technology.

Like, the kind of radical simplification Ruby on Rails introduced for server-side web programming. Yeah, yeah, I know, you hate Ruby because it's not the language you learned at your mother's teat, for God's sake. Despite Ruby's near-perfect Conceptual Integrity Index, you'd sooner quit your job and become a sanitation ...

Jon Stewart likes jems which is concealed by the fact that Jon always wears a newscasting outfit. After his first apperance on the Daily Show, John Hodgman was able to use that fact to make a well placed bribe to Jon Stewart to become the resident expert on TDS.

That is all.

John Hodgman visited Brookline tonight and explained to the residents of the Boston area how Hoboes are close to taking over the world. Though most of them escaped to outer space after the great depression.

At least he had Jonathon Coulton along to sign accompanient and play his theme song, because every self respecting author should have a theme song.
John tought how to draw and recognize a hobo sign.

I am finally realizing the deficiency of the LCD on my camera to show me how the picture actually turned out. Guess that is a good reason to know even more about how to compose a picture.

Walking down a newly built walking path that goes by an abandoned steam factory on a Saturday afternoon.

See a perfect spider web but cannot get the best picture of it. The sun is coming at the wrong angle.

The early hint of fall folidge makes for a nice contrast with the water, rusty pipes, and green trees.

Cory Doctorow has a very interesting article, How Copyright Broke, in the September Locus magazine.

I really like this analogy he made:

Indeed, until the photocopier came along, it was practically impossible for a member of the audience to infringe copyright in a way that would rise to legal notice. Copyright was like a tank-mine, designed only to go off when a publisher or record company or radio station rolled over it. We civilians couldn't infringe copyright (many thanks to Jamie Boyle for this useful analogy).

I am totally befuddled. Somehow I let xkcd slip under my radar until wil wheaton mentioned it on Monday. Now I have read all of the archives and feel enlightened.

Such an amazing comic with some many insane strips.

music knowledge, neil gaiman, malaria, digital rights management

Now that July is almost over I have finally used up almost all of my vacation for this year.

First I went to DC for an Iris show at Nation which was absolutely amazing.

My parents came into town for the end of the week. We walked around town and had supper at the Union Oyster House.

Holocaust Memorial: